The Effect of the Peak Discharges of River Danube on the Strait of Istanbul (Bosphorus)

The Strait of Istanbul (Bosphorus: SoI) is the meeting point of Black Sea and Marmara Sea. It is under influence of many hydrological, oceanographical and meteorological variables. Clearly, it is known that River Danube discharge reaches to the Sea of Marmara via SoI. The approximate distance between outlet of River Danube and northern end of the SoI is nearly 500km. In this study, the influence of the peak river Danube discharges (higher than 11000 m3 /s) on the SoI is investigated by using dataset of TAISEI Corporation, ISKI, Turkish State Meteorological Service and GRDC, Grains Research and Development Corporation. To this end, the power spectra of River Danube is calculated and compared with those of water level, surface layer water salinity and finally, surface water temperature data at the northern end of the SoI. In addition, the time series of water temperature, water salinity, and water level of the northern end of the SoI is examined together with time series of River Danube discharge between 1st Oct 2004 and 31st Sept 2005. The validation is performed by checking wind speed, air pressure and precipitation data on the SoI during that tim